This dressing/sauce is purely inspired by the restaurant Real Food Daily. It’s their house dressing, and the recipe can be found in their cookbook. Eating at RFD gave me the idea that you can make some simple tasty meals by pouring a dressing like this over various things, such as grains and steamed vegetables. It’s also good with a salad of chopped raw vegetables. We had it most recently with quinoa and steamed cauliflower, and also a salad of Vitamix-chopped cabbage and carrots. The dressing has a sesame seed base, with a few additions to make it more flavorful. The RFD cookbook uses tahini, but I used whole sesame seeds because they’re cheaper and more convenient, and the Vitamix quickly turns them into tahini.
⅓ cup toasted sesame seeds*
¼ cup lemon juice (1 or 2 lemons)
1 tsp tamari plus more to taste**
1 tbsp water
¾ cup packed watercress leaves (~1 bunch)
1 clove garlic
2 green onions
*I used the same hulled sesame seeds that I use for hummus, but I lightly toasted them in our toaster oven.
**The RFD cookbook uses 1 Tbsp, but for my taste that’s excessively salty. You can always add more at the end.
Blend on high until smooth, about 40 seconds, and serve. The dressing will keep in the fridge for a few days, and it’s pretty versatile, so you might want to make a double batch.
This worked well, and I plan on exploring other Vitamix dressings to pour over a range of foods to make them more interesting and flavorful. Beyond cauliflower, other vegetables to steam include greens, broccoli, carrots, and green beans. For a more varied salad beyond cabbage and carrots, you could add lettuce, baby greens, cucumber, and/or beets.
For a discussion of how to use a Vitamix to chop vegetables, see my coleslaw post.
For other sauces that can be used similarly, check out the savory cashew sauce and ginger-sesame dressing.
This definitely sounds very good! I love using my Vitamix to make salad dressing, probably my favorite use of it in fact.
I’ve been meaning to try more salad dressings. Do you have any favorites?
Sorry for the late reply, it’s been a bit of a rough week.
I must admit, I tend to pretty much wing it with salad dressing when I’m just making a general purpose batch to use on lunch/dinner salads for the week.
I’ll usually start with some herbs (dried or fresh), a clove of garlic, a little glob of prepared mustard (I use an all natural honey mustard, most people would use dijon or possibly whole grain), a little salt and pepper, and vinegar and/or citrus juice. I’ll typically use a good quality but not ultra high end balsamic, but sometimes I use white wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, or red wine vinegar. We also have a local store that has a wide variety of good quality infused balsamics and olive oils in bulk, so if I have a taste for, say, a berry, maple, or fig vinaigrette I’ll use one of their vinegars. For oil, sometimes I use a good quality plain one, sometimes I use one of the flavor infused ones from the bulk place. If I’m concerned the olive oil flavor will be too strong, I use part olive oil and part safflower oil. I usually start with about 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil, and adjust to my taste from there.
So first I buzz up the herbs/spices/salt, garlic, mustard, and vinegar for a bit to get everything blended nicely, fast enough to blitz the garlic clove but not fast enough to spray it all over the jar. Then with the Vitamix running at maybe 6 or so, I slowly drizzle in the oil. When it’s all emulsified I use a spoon to check viscosity and taste. At that point I can add more salt, a pinch of sugar, more vinegar, etc. I almost always have to blend in some water because the emulsion I get from the Vitamix is so good that it gets a bit too thick for pouring.
The reason I love the Vitamix so much for salad dressing is that I’m a bit of a lazy salad dressing maker. All that whisking is pretty boring, and then if you let it sit it breaks and you have to shake or whisk again. My Vitamix dressing never separates once it comes together. And it tastes better than anything from a bottle at the store!
This is delicious. I’ve made it twice already! Thanks!
Why is it green? Theirs isn’t green
It’s green from the watercress, and to a lesser extent from the green onion. RFD has a variety of dressings. I haven’t been in a number of years, and maybe they’ve changed their default house dressing.